SNL and Peter Dinklage Take You Behind the Scenes of ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 6

With Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage hosting SNL, there was no way the show wasn’t going to parody HBO’s beloved fantasy series in some way. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time SNL has taken on the most popular tale of intrigue and violence and dragons and sex. But you’ve got to give the writers credit — creating a fake “making-of” featurette is a fresh concept, especially since past sketches have been more straightforward riffs on this material.

Dinklage plays himself, while Kate McKinnon and Taran Killam do fine work as Emilia Clarke and Iain Glen, but they’re really just there to react to the scene’s single big joke: a dragon motion capture actor played by Bobby Moynihan. Naturally, the real Game of Thrones doesn’t utilize motion capture technology to bring its digital dragons to life, so watching Moynihan strut around set in his skin-tight costume, finding time to be both a buffoon and a diva, is a treat.

There are delightful gags a’plenty: Moynihan posturing and posing like he is a mythical beast, speaking in scenes when everyone knows dragons have no lines, and, uh, having an accident in his mo-cap suit. It’s all very silly, but it’s also portrayed with just enough authentic HBO behind-the-scenes featurette flavor to sing.